Festivali i Këngës The national broadcaster,
Radio Televizioni Shqiptar (RTSH), organised the 56th edition of
Festivali i Këngës in order to select
Albania's entry for the
Eurovision Song Contest 2018 in
Lisbon, Portugal. A jury panel, consisting of music professionals, internally selected 22 songs out of 70 to participate in the competition's semi-finals. Subsequently, after the grand final,
Eugent Bushpepa and his
Albanian-language song "Mall" was chosen to represent the country at the contest.
Eurovision Song Contest performing during a rehearsal. His performance featured flashing lights including plenty of "Albanian" red. The
63rd edition of the
Eurovision Song Contest took place in
Lisbon, Portugal, and consisted of two semi-finals on 8 and 10 May, and the grand final on 12 May 2018. According to the
Eurovision rules, each participating country, except the host country and the "
Big Five", consisting of , , , and the , were required to qualify from one of two semi-finals to compete for the grand final, although, the top ten countries from the respective semi-final progress to the grand final. Albania performed third in the first semi-final, following and preceding . During the first semi-final, the country qualified for the grand final in eighth place with 162 points on 8 May 2018 ranking third by the jury's 114 points and eleventh by the televote of 48 points. Soon after, it was scheduled to perform twelfth in the grand final following and preceding . It eventually reached eleventh place in a field of twenty-six with 184 points on 12 May 2018 placed seventh by the jury's 126 points and eighteenth by the televote of 58 points. The performance of Bushpepa begins with black and blue tones on the
LED screens, changing throughout his performance to warmer tones consisting of red, yellow and white, as the song reaches its climax. The singer was accompanied during his performances by two female
backing vocalists and a small band, consisting of a
drummer,
guitarist and a
bass player. == Personnel ==